Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: ( 1 Customer Review )

Masterpeace from Tel Aviv quartet and Pnina SaltzApril 10, 2012By Reuven Holzer (Herzlia, Israel)See All My Reviews"The real reason I wanted to buy this CD is becasue I wanted to hear a recording of the legendary Tel Aviv quartet.Tel Aviv quartet was constituted on three leaders of The Israeli Phylharmonic. Haim Taub who was one of te Konzert-Meisters, Daniel Benyamini who was the principal Viola player and Uzi Wiesel who was the principal Cello player.I never heard them on live performance. I only heard fregments of their playing in youtube, and also some of Daniel Benyamini's performances.In 1983 I did attend a recital of Daniel Benyamini where he played with a pianist two pieces by D. Schostakovitz and one by J. Brahms. I still remember the voice coming out of his viola, it was something to remember. He was THE master of viola in his time, and frankly, I am not sure if any one today can make viola sound like that once again.....If any one want to hear his playing in youtube there is a piece "Two leaders for Viola and piano with a singer" by Brahms with Leonard Bernstein on piano and soprano Christa Ludwig. Any how the two pieced in this CD do represents the quality of playing I heard in this recital. It is not the best recording you can get, however, you can imaging the sound in the hall (it is a live recording). It does represent the sound these guys could produce out of their instruments. Their style is modern as if it was recorded now days. I compare it to a performance with Isac Stern and I can tell that this is an old recording : Heavy and over dramatic. These guys do it lightly with a grace only the pianist Arthur Rubinstein had in their times.Just to mention here, that I am a big fun of the viola as an instrument. I even like it better then the violin. And just to mention the great great Haim Taub, which I did not hear much of his playing (my sorrow....), however he was ever a great teacher of great successors, including Guy Braunstein who is today one of Berliner Phylharmoniker's Konzer Meisters.The bottom line is that this is not such a good recording (technically) however, the performers worth the effort. I like it very much and I would rate it 5 (highest rank) despite the technical issue."Report Abuse

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